Telecoms support skilled-worker immigration reform

The CEO of Verizon is urging congressional leaders to accelerate an overhaul of U.S. immigration policy to expand the number of highly skilled foreign workers eligible for temporary H-1B worker visas. In letters sent to members of the Senate's "Gang of Eight" a day before the House Judiciary Committee was to convene a hearing on immigration reform, Lowell McAdam added his voice to the growing chorus of tech industry leaders who say the current system is stifling economic growth and costing billions of dollars in "lost productivity and wasted resources." Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., says he does not see a future for such a stand-alone reform bill.